A Sony rep has confirmed to Ars that the company is still hard at work towards …

One of the disappointing realities of the PlayStation Video Store is that the service simply isn't available anywhere outside of the United States. Sadly, that's something that non-US gamers are used to after having been left out in the cold when it comes to video content from Microsoft. While no clear dates or even remote timeframes have been given, Sony has pledged that it is still working to bring the video store to non-US regions.

"We're still working on it," a Sony spokesperson said to Ars at the Sony Holiday Preview event in downtown Toronto yesterday. "The legal stuff is a little tricky, and there's a lot of work behind the scenes that has to go on. But the infrastructure is there. It's just a matter of continuing to work with content providers." When asked when non-US patrons could expect the service, the spokesperson reiterated that the company "still [don't] have any firm dates, but we're working on it."

Given Sony's pull in the film and television industries, one would have thought the company capable of deftly avoiding the pitfalls that Microsoft fell into early on with the Xbox Video Marketplace. While Microsoft has since procured some movies for the Canadian and European stores, the PlayStation Video Store remains non-existent outside of the States. Hopefully Sony gets the video store running in Canada and Europe sooner rather than later, even if the DRM is an issue.